Jamie Siminoff’s Latch seeks new direction, name

Where other tech executives see an industry in distress, Jamie Siminoff sees an open door.

Latch’s self-titled “chief doorman” envisions a different future for the floundering proptech company, which is rebranding as Door.com, as it looks toward a future that involves more than just electronic locks. The company’s new direction is actually a massive expansion, unhinging itself from a building’s front door and into peoples’ cars.

Under the umbrella of one of Siminoff’s recent creations and the company’s recent acquisition, Honest Day’s Work, Door.com is throwing itself into a software development arena that has little or nothing to do with proptech. It’s working on an app geared towards tradesmen, from private drivers to building managers, with hopes to modernize workforces that have been slow to keep up with technological changes, according to the company’s incoming CEO.

Siminoff is clearly shaking things up in an otherwise tumultuous time for the Tishman Speyer-backed startup. Last summer, Latch disclosed it had warned the SEC of “material errors and possible irregularities” in its financial reporting from 2019 to early 2022.

In January, its cofounder, Luke Schoenfelder, dropped out as both CEO and chairman of the board.

Then, in July, Latch announced that it would lay off nearly 60 percent of its workforce by November in an attempt to save millions, just a week after it acquired Honest Day’s Work. And in August, Latch shared that it received an expected notice from the Nasdaq stock market that it would suspend trading of the company’s securities and begin to delist the company from the exchange after it had failed to meet its periodic filing obligations, Yahoo reported.

Latch, which had a $1.5 billion valuation when it went public in 2021, hasn’t kept up with its own expectations. At the time, it projected revenue would increase from $18 million in 2020 to $877 million by 2025, but numbers paint a different picture. In its last twelve months, the company pulled a revenue of $48.39 million, according to Yahoo Finance.

And while the company is looking at a total rebrand, it will also continue to herald its core tech — a smart lock home security system that connects to your phone. Yet that offers just one more challenge for the incoming CEO, who is joining the company at a time when investors are pulling back on proptech, citing a flailing office market that is slow to keep up with changing tech trends, reported the Commercial Observer. 

But Siminoff, who once told Forbes that he was most attracted to problems that “could never be solved,” doesn’t seem too bogged down by the macro trends.

“Too often we try to build into what’s hot because that provides better valuations in the short term,” Siminoff told The Real Deal. “But if you look down the road, is every building going to have an electronic lock in 30 years? Seems likely.”

Siminoff, who got digital doorbells right when he founded and sold Ring to Amazon for $1 billion, has had an interesting year of his own. In March, the executive stepped down as CEO, claiming he wanted to return to inventing.

Just two months later, however, he was brought on to rescue Latch. Siminoff says he couldn’t stay away from the business side of things, viewing it as the “accidental” twin to inventing at scale. 

Siminoff’s first move is rolling out the James app, which offers a centralized interface for personal drivers to connect with, schedule and invoice passenger clients.

Siminoff believes it’s a better alternative to what chauffeurs currently do, which relies on clients texting them for a ride whenever they need one. That’s not the experience clients expect anymore, he contends. Instead, Door.com is banking that the market will run to a cleaner alternative that matches the streamlined experience of hailing an Uber or Lyft, with the added benefit of knowing who’ll show up at your door.

“If we don’t give independent workers this type of technology they will succumb to all of the big platforms,” Siminoff said.

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